"Where's the driver gorn, then?"
This is Jennifer Murray with G-MURY, in which she went round the world in 1997. David seems to be unaware that in most helicopters, the driver sits on the right. The weather looks more typical of Glenforsa, scarcely VMC one would think.
Stan Moodie's Goldwing at the 1995 Fly-In
This local pilot seems to specialise in such carrier-type, short-field arrivals. We have posted another of his efforts in the prangs section of this page. David says he went to Glasgow once in the man's PA28 Arrow and he burst the nosewheel tyre. Seems to specialise in wheelbarrow landings.
Curiously I have just been sent this pic of some more competent pilots:
Here is the U.S. Blue Arrows aerobatic team over New York, clearly in pre-9/11 times. Writing of speedy types, David had to do some nifty panning to catch this Italian home-built Falco. That's Donald MacGillivray's house in the background, so it looks as if he's doing a very low beat-up along the main road. Typical Italian driver - probably using a mobile phone at the same time. We were in Italy summer 2001 and pulled into a motorway service station behind a car. The driver parked, got out, went to the gents (followed by myself on the same errand), relieved himself, washed his hands, went back to his car, and drove off without interrupting his conversation. But returning to the aircraft, this thing cruises at 180 knots, mph, or something like that so David says!
Unfortunately, it was only a few days later that the same aircraft and pilot were over Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland, and the canopy hadn't been properly secured. It came adrift and took the tail off. Neither pilot not aircraft were ever recovered.
A prang with happier consequences for the pilot at least was this one:
(Photo: Oban Times, Oct 19 2000)
The pilot was flying from Plockton in North-West Scotland to Oban, but due to head winds and fuel shortage tried to land at Glenforsa. He was fortunate in that it was the time of the Mull Car Rally, and members of the rally's rescue crew were staying at the Glenforsa Hotel, including qualified paramedics and aircraft engineers. They dismantled the aircraft, put it on a trailer, and took it back to Edinburgh for him. The pilot himself suffered no more than a broken wrist.
We don't wish to tempt Providence, but the moral here seems to be: if you are going to have a prang, do it at Glenforsa.
Regrettably, no such assistance would have been available in October 2002, as the new owners of the Glenforsa Hotel have decided to close it totally - even the bar - from late September 2002 till Easter 2003. During the October 2002 rally, several casualties were evacuated by Sea King from Glenforsa without the benefit of the hotel's facilities.
While on the subject of microlights, I had a passenger flight in this contraption:
I leaned forward and yelled in the pilot's ear: "I think we've got negative ground speed!". After some more cruising around with care not to get blown over to the mainland with no chance of returning by air, we landed back at Glenforsa. Actually I quite enjoyed the flight - it certainly gives the sensation of being in intimate contact with the aerial medium.
And now for something that would have no trouble making it up the glen in whatever wind:
This is Ian "The Mad Pilot" Searson's Pitts under reconstruction as at Nov. 2002. He is making remarkable progress. He has a cottage in Tobermory so we hope to see a lot of this aircraft in coming years.